Monday, December 18, 2017

At times March Creech, head of the Christian Action League in North Carolina, prefers “Dr.” Creech. Yet his educational background it noticeably missing from his biography. I wonder why that is. It has also been my experience that conspiracy theorists tend to be full of crap themselves. Mr. Creech is most assuredly a conspiracy theorists. Whenever something that he does not like happens, Creech knows who to blame.

In April, 2016 Creech blamed the Human Rights Campaign for allegedly smearing North Carolina. It couldn't possibly be the bigoted HB2 that Creech helped to promote (Creech is a registered lobbyist).

Today, Creech's blame has a new direction. “Aloof evangelical leaders” are responsible, at least in part, for the defeat of Roy Moore.

I am admittedly angry and struggling to keep it in check. It’s not that I am so much incensed at the cheap tricks of the Democratic Party, or a leftist media, or the Republican establishment, as I am at certain evangelical leaders.

Apparently they are all to blame for the defeat of his guy. It couldn't possibly have been very credible allegations that Moore is a pedophile. Or evidence that he preyed on young teen girls. Nor could it be the fact that Moore revealed himself to be a racist, a slavery apologist. Oh and Kayla Moore's display of anti-Semitism couldn't have swayed any votes. Bannon's unhingedness? Trump's immorality?

Finally, Moore and Creech never seem to understand that a fair number of citizens have LGBT family members. Moore's outrageous, obnoxious, ignorant, backward-rube bigotry towards LGBT people took a toll.

It wasn't the leftist media that got Moore thrown off the bench, twice. Moore, a judge, believed that he could pick and choose which laws he would obey. None of this could have turned off voters or energized opponents. Now could it?

Roy Moore has carried the flag of conservative evangelicals for decades. In a recent 4 minute YouTube post, I think he encapsulated his consistent stand through the years. He said:

Today, we no longer recognize the universal truth that God is the author of our life and liberty. Abortion, sodomy, and materialism have taken the place of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness…We have stopped prayer in our schools…We have killed over 60 million of our unborn children. We have redefined marriage and destroyed the basis of the family, which is the building block of our country. Our borders are not secure. Our economy is faltering under an enormous national debt. We have a huge drug problem. We have even begun to recognize the right of a man to claim to be a woman, and vice versa. We have allowed judges and justices to rule over our Constitution, and we have become slaves to their tyranny. Immorality sweeps over our land.

As you can see, from the above, Roy Moore sees America as a failed theocracy; something that should closer to Iran than anything our founding fathers conceived of. The hypocrisy of a presumed pedophile preaching about immorality. Who in the hell is Roy Moore to be lecturing about right and wrong. Clearly robbing people of their dignity based on their sexuality is something that Moore promotes as good and wholesome. Is that Christ-like? The existence of transgender people isn't new. However, recency supports Moore's going to Hell in a handbag presentation that he is so fond of. As a former judge Moore should also know that, for well over 200 years (Marbury v. Madison), we have accepted the fact that the Supreme Court is the final arbiter of the Constitution. It's not subject to our personal approval. It is not subject to the approval of the mullahs.

All of this hyperbole has Creech's full and uncritical support. Later on:

One highly esteemed evangelical leader said he thought the allegations against Moore were credible, and, therefore, he couldn't vote for him. In other words, he believes in approximating the truth. Wow! Now there's a strong Christian worldview! Withdraw support if the allegation might be true! Let's hope that evangelical leader is never wrongly accused and treated the same way.

The word “credible” is somewhat ambiguous but it rarely means something comparable to speculative guesswork. For most people, credible means persuasive and more likely to be true than untrue. Moore's offense is not 40-year-old pedophilia as much as it is massive hypocrisy and indecency. In fact some people would consider Moore's homophobia and transphobia a means of masking his sexual misconduct. But not Mr. Creech:

What about the question of Roy Moore's credibility? He had a spotless record of service. … Certainly, no woman would ever lie about something like that! Contrary to much of what's being said at the moment, it happens every day.

Spotless record? A judge has been removed from the bench, twice, for disobeying the orders of federal judges, most recently for disobeying the Supreme Court. A judge. That is the very definition of lawlessness. It is reminiscent of the South's behavior as the federal courts were integrating schools. It reminds people of George Wallace, 45th governor of Alabama, standing in the schoolhouse door to block the admission of African-American students.

Creech's then claimed (above) that all the women accusing Moore are liars and that women lie about such things all the time. That itself is indecent. One must reasonably ponder exactly what benefit these women achieve by lying about Moore. Or shall we just blame the Washington Post, the Democrats or the Republican establishment? It is just too convenient to blame the usual suspects.

I believe many Christian leaders were simply cowards, and really more concerned about the potential splatter from political mud-slinging getting on them if they stood with Moore. They were fearful it might be proven at some point Moore was truly guilty. Still, I am persuaded it is better to be found as having been betrayed than having been the one who betrayed.

Some evangelical Christians, even in Alabama, are capable of seeing that Moore has a pattern of lawbreaking. They might think that Moore should be able to display the Ten Commandments but draw the line at a state judge disobeying a federal judge. They might not like the ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges but realize that no one, particularly a judge, is above the law.

Betrayal applies not to those people who employed some critical thinking but to those who refused, purely for partisan politics, to appreciate that Mr. Moore lacked the character and decency to be a United States senator. People like Creech should have been setting an example but they influenced people to not see what was directly in front of them.

Those influencers should have disapproved of Moore long before he was accused of sexual misconduct. The fact that Moore decided for himself which laws he would obey and which laws he was free to disobey should have been sufficient to withdraw support. Moore's indecency towards minorities should have been sufficient. Moore's apologies for slavery should have been sufficient. Moore's overt anti-Semitism should have been sufficient.

Rather than the fact that some evangelical leaders were troubled by Moore's past, Creech should realize that Moore motivated massive numbers of minority voters to show up. That is no easy task because of photo ID requirements and the fact that the state closed motor vehicle offices in many poor districts. Even then, getting photo ID without photo ID is nearly impossible. Yet Moore motivated these largely minority voters to jump through hoops and that had little to do with Moore's sexual improprieties.

People like Creech have selective memories. They could have backed another Republican in the primary but they overlooked Moore's obvious flaws, substituting Christian zealotry for political reality even when that zealotry was indecent. Now they want to blame everyone else for their own shortcomings.

Creech is long on blame while markedly short on logic. A high school sophomore could properly analyze the following:

Please spare me the echoes of the right raised to a fever pitch by the left about protecting vulnerable women from sexual harassment and children from pedophilia, especially when that same left wants to allow men into women's restrooms, locker rooms, and showers. Those so concerned about what the left thinks and whether they'll call evangelicals hypocrites have a misplaced concern.

I do not think that his had anything to do with protecting anyone from anything. This is about common decency. Creech is presenting a Gish Gallup. The “left” (whoever that is) believes in transgender accommodations (which does not mean “allowing men into women's restrooms” — That's just the hyperbolic talking point). Creech is then dishonestly saying that this belief in trans accommodations disqualifies these same people from making judgments regarding morality and decency. Then he further, and dishonestly, claims that those on the right are therefore morally obligated to assume the opposite position of those on the left.

When evangelicals called for President Bill Clinton's resignation after it was proven he had behaved unworthy of his office, the media and the political left christened evangelicals, "self-righteous." When evangelicals support a man who has allegations against him that are unsubstantiated, the left calls them, "hypocrites."

This has nothing to do with Bill Clinton when consenting adults made some bad decisions that did not render President Clinton deserving of removal from office according to the U.S. Senate. Unsubstantiated is not the same thing as not credible. Several people with nothing to gain accused Moore of the same misconduct. Are they all liars? Is this some sort of conspiracy orchestrated by Moore's political opponents? Creech wanted people to believe just that while overlooking all of Moore's other flaws.

Granted, our first allegiance is always to the Lord. But how can we really show allegiance to God whom we've never seen, if we can't demonstrate faithfulness to a brother who has shown himself credible?

There's that word “credible” again. This time Creech has changed from making credible something that is speculative to making credible something that is beyond reasonable doubt. It is a definition of convenience. If anything Mr. Moore demonstrated a habit of thinking that he is above the law. That is not credible conduct for a jurist. That should render Moore disqualified from any public office. Moore's indecency, while well documented, is unnecessary to reaching that conclusion.

Yet Creech is one of those evangelic hypocrites who supported Trump. They knew that Trump is a sociopath, a pathological liar and unqualified to be president. Yet support for a profoundly immoral and indecent boor caused them to accrue power at the expense of most other people. Power is a form of greed and Mr. Creech is a very greedy man. Sanctimoniously greedy which is the ultimate hypocrisy.